Retrieve Your Forgot Windows Product Key: A Step-by-Step Guide

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If you’ve encountered issues with using an encrypted product key from your BIOS on a different PC, you may be feeling frustrated. Don’t worry; there’s a straightforward way to get your Windows activated again. Let’s walk through the steps to solve this problem effortlessly.

First, it’s important to note that a BIOS-stored product key is tied to the specific machine it came with and cannot be used directly on another device. However, you can retrieve your original Windows key and reinstall the operating system without much hassle.

Here’s how you can do it:

Get ShowKeyPlus: Download the free ShowKeyPlus application from the Microsoft Store. This tool will help you find the OEM Windows key for your device.

You can find it here.
Retrieve Your Key: Open ShowKeyPlus. The app will display your original OEM Windows key and show which version of Windows it supports. For most HP notebooks, this should indicate the operating system version that originally came with your device.
Check Your Device’s Specifications: To verify your system configuration, you can check your notebook’s parts listing online. For HP devices, the HP PartSurfer tool is quite helpful. Look up your model to confirm it originally came with Windows 10 Professional.

Access HP PartSurfer here.
Create a Bootable USB Drive: Next, you will need to create a bootable USB installation drive. To do this, you can use the Media Creation Tool available from Microsoft.

Download it here.

Follow the prompts to create a bootable USB drive with the Windows installer.
Reinstall Windows: Once your bootable USB is ready, insert it into your PC and boot from it. During installation, the setup should automatically detect your Windows 10 Pro product key. Ensure you’re connected to the internet, and it will install and activate your Windows version without requiring you to enter the key manually.

By following these steps, you should be able to successfully reinstall Windows on your laptop using your original OEM key. This process ensures that you can enjoy all the features of your operating system without encountering any licensing issues. Good luck, and happy computing!